Minecraft Bedrock beta players can already test out goats and powder snow as both features went live early despite being included in the yet-unreleased Caves & Cliffs update. The anticipated expansion hosts an enormous amount of new content and mechanics, but it won’t be out until an unspecified date in 2021.
The Caves & Cliffs update was announced via a detailed and thorough livestream at the beginning of October. The expansion was revealed to include a completely revamped cave system with new biomes and generation guidelines. On top of that, the update will bring new mobs, blocks, crafting materials, ore, and much more. There’s even a fully functional archeology system.
While the anticipated Caves & Cliffs expansion won’t be out in its full glory until sometime next year, Mojang has announced that a couple of minor new features included in the update are already available for the latest beta of Minecraft Bedrock Edition. These include powder snow and one of the new mobs - adorably offensive goats. These mischievous animals will jump around mountain areas, but what’s important is their angry behavior as they are capable of charging into other mobs and players. Upon the collision, goats send their victims in quite a freefall, which might be especially dangerous on the edge of a cliff. Powder snow is obviously less dramatic, but it adds a nice touch to the overall snow mechanics in the game. It behaves somewhat similar to a block of cobweb as it reduces fall damage to zero, but entities such as players and mobs slowly sink in blocks of snow. This can be easily countered by equipping leather boots, but perhaps Mojang will also top that by adding a useful enchantment when Caves & Cliffs update finally releases.
Although there’s plenty of time left until the next major Minecraft update comes out, Microsoft is already taking steps toward uniting the game’s ecosystem scattered across several different versions. In a seemingly unwelcome attempt to promote Microsoft accounts, the company has made them mandatory to login to Minecraft Java Edition. It’s weird that it hasn’t happened earlier given that Mojang was purchased six years ago. Perhaps Microsoft was hoping to migrate the entirety of the Minecraft community over to Bedrock Edition, but Java Edition remains overwhelmingly popular thanks to its limitless modding possibilities.
It’s unquestionably nice that Mojang decided to let its community test some of the features included in the Caves & Cliffs expansion. It is expected to add tons of new content being arguably the most innovative and rich update in the history of Minecraft, but it is still months away - and players want something to fool around right now. While goats and powder snow are nowhere near the most anticipated changes included in the update, they are nonetheless exciting enough to distract the community from a potential content draught until Caves & Cliffs finally sees the light of day.
Minecraft is available on all platforms, and the Caves & Cliffs update will launch sometime in 2021.
Source: Minecraft